Apparatus for improved power distribution or power dissipation to an electrical component and method for the same

ABSTRACT

Embedding a power modification component such as a capacitance inside of an adaptor board located to extend over and beyond the vias of the main circuit board so that a portion of the interposer board containing the embedded capacitance is located beyond where the vias or blinds are located. This permits that via to conduct through the opening. In this way, the capacitance and the resistance will have a closer contact point to the electrical component. A resistance can also be embedded in an opening in the adaptor board and be vertically aligned within the opening to make contact with a pad on top of the adaptor board and a pad at the bottom of the adaptor board so that electricity conducts through the embedded component.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a non provisional application of a provisional application Ser.No. 61/276,661 by James V. Russell filed Sep. 15, 2009.

BACKGROUND Field

In attaching an electrical component to the bottom side and/or the topside of a printed circuit board (PCB), there is the problem of powerloss due to the distance of the capacitance to the points on acorresponding IC for which it is intended. It is not possible tophysically locate the capacitance directly to the contact pads on theprinted circuit, which corresponds to the input output points of anintegrated circuit or, in the case of a test board, the correspondingpoints of the test socket. Similarly, there is the problem of inadequatepower dissipation due to the distance of a resistance to the electricalcomponent. Again, it is not very likely to physically locate theresistance at the contact pads on the printed circuit board.

It would therefore be desirable to have a method and apparatus thatprovides for close proximate placement of the capacitance or of theresistance, which shall be referred to as a power modificationcomponent, since it either dissipates power (resistance) or betterdistributes power (capacitance) to the electrical component on a PCB toprovide better power distribution or power dissipation. It would be evenmore desirable to be able to accomplish these goals without the need forreplacing the main circuit board should a different circuit be desiredat another time.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides for attaching and embedding acapacitance or a resistance directly in an adaptor board or aninterposer board that is then connected to the main circuit board. Theadaptor board can be connected to the main circuit board by soldering,electrically connecting it by a conductive elastomer connection, springpins or by any other way that is known in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded sectional view showing embedded components in aninterposer board, which is located above for connection to the maincircuit board in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is another embodiment of the present disclosure showing the viasaligned vertically one on top of another for a finer pitch;

FIG. 3 is another embodiment of the present disclosure in which theembedded component is aligned vertically within the adaptor board;

FIG. 4 is an embodiment of the present disclosure showing an embeddedresistance and an embedded capacitance within the adaptor board;

FIG. 5 is an exploded sectional view of another embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 6A is an exploded sectional view of another embodiment of thepresent disclosure in which the number of pads is different from that ofthe embodiments of FIGS. 5, 8 and 9;

FIG. 6B illustrates the trace routing on one of either the interfacesides of the main circuit board or of the adaptor board facing a side ofthe modified printed circuit board (modified pc board) where the tracerouting is possible on the interface layers of the adaptor board and onthe interface layers on the main circuit board in accordance with theembodiments of FIG. 5, FIG. 6A, FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 7 is the modified PC board of the embodiment of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is another embodiment of the present disclosure in which there isno need for a modified PC board and the adaptor board has lands that arecoated with conductive elastomeric material; and.

FIG. 9 is another embodiment of the present disclosure in which there isno need for a modified PC board and the main circuit board has landsthat are coated with conductive elastomeric material.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the presentdisclosure in which power modification component 5 is embedded in anadaptor board 10. The embedded component 5 can be placed between vias 11as shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, an embedded component 5 is placed betweenextended pads on the top of an adaptor board 10 with the component 5embedded within the adaptor board 10. Connective material 7 isconductive material such as but not limited to solder, conductive epoxyor traditional plating techniques such as copper, silver, etc.connecting the ends 8 of the component 5 to the underside of extendedpads 9A. Similarly, vias 11 can be made through metallization by anytraditional plating techniques such as copper, silver, etc., conductiveepoxy, or solder. Thus the extended pads 9A are connected to the ends 8of the component 5 by conductive material 7 and are offset from the vias11 extending through the adaptor board 10 before making contact with thevias 12 of the main circuit board 15, which is attached or connected tothe adaptor board 10. In this way, the main circuit board 15 can bereused and does not have to be discarded when an embedded component 5wears out or the main circuit board 15 is used for another circuitconfiguration. Main circuit boards 15 are expensive and this is apractical way to reduce the power loss (dissipation) from a resistor(see FIGS. 3 and 4) or improve a power gain (distribution) for acapacitance by using embedded components 5 but still freeing the maincircuit board 15 for future use at the same time. The adaptor board 10can be connected to the main circuit board 15 in any conventional wayincluding soldering to it, connecting to it by use of a conductiveelastomeric connection or spring pins or any other way that is know inthe art.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the present disclosure in which afiner pitch is possible by aligning blinds 11 a on top of one another.In this embodiment, rather than have the pads of the interposer boardextend and be offset from the vias 11 as in FIG. 1 blinds 11 a arevertically aligned with one set extending to permit the pads to makecontact with the endpoints of the embedded component 5 from the top ofthe adaptor board 10 and with another set extending upward from the padsat the bottom of the adaptor board 10. In this way a finer pitch ispossible. Blinds 11 a can be connected to the endpoints as described forconnective material 7 for the embodiment in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of improved power dissipation byembedding a resistor 5 a in an adaptor board 10. Component 5 a islocated between pads 9 a and 9 b and in effect acts as a via for theadaptor board 10 so that the electrical connection is through theresistance 5 a embedded in the adaptor board 10. The pads 9 areconnected to the resistance 5 a through openings at the end points ofresistance 5 a and pads 9 a and 9 b respectively. The openings can befilled with solder, metallic plating or conductive epoxy. It isunderstood that the adaptor board 10 can be a multilayer PC board.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present disclosure with theembedded component 5 of FIG. 1 and the embedded resistance 5 a of FIG. 3together in the same adaptor board 10. It is understood that the adaptorboard 10 can be a multilayer PC board.

FIG. 5 illustrates the electrical connector of the present disclosure inwhich the connector has a mechanical compression structure 105, anadaptor board 106 (it is understood that the adaptor board has embeddedcomponents in it not shown in FIG. 5) with connecting lands or pads 107,and a modified PC board 108 with conductive elastomer material 109formed on lands 109 a and 109B respectively on both sides of themodified PC board 108; and a main circuit board 110 having connectinglands 111. One non-limiting illustrative example of use of thecompression structure 105 for the present disclosure includes a socket105 a in the compression structure 105 that is adapted to house a testcircuit such as an integrated circuit (IC) chip 103. Pins 105 b providefor making electrical connections to the IC chip 103 housed in socket105 a with pads 107 of the adaptor board 106. The connecting lands orpads 107 of the adaptor board 106 and of the connecting lands 111 of themain circuit board 10 are placed into contact with elastomer material109 located on the lands or pads 109 a and 109 b of the modified PCboard 108 when the adaptor board 106 and the modified PC board 108 andthe main circuit board 110 are compressed together by the mechanicalcompression structure 105. The elastomer material 109 can be eitherisotropic or anisotropic elastomer material. Thus the modified PC board108 by placement of the elastomeric material 109 thereon serves as a paddefined connector 108. Alternatively, the modified PC board 108 can bereplaced with an anisotropic sheet elastomer.

By compressing the boards together, it is possible to provide anelectrical connection between the adaptor board 106 and the main circuitboard 110 thereby adapting the pitch and/or footprint between thecompression structure 105 and the main circuit board 110. By using landson both sides of the modified PC board 108, a good connection isestablished be only placing conductive elastomeric material includingbut not limited to placing isotropic elastomeric material at padlocations or by placing anisotropic material throughout the entiresurface of the connecting region as described in U.S. Pat. No.6,854,985. An advantage of utilizing isotropic elastomeric material atpad locations is that great routing densities and low costs can berealized.

In addition to converting the pitch by connecting fine pads to coarsepads and vice verse, also known as pitch translation the presentdisclosure also provides for rerouting the electrical connections fromthe pins 105 b 1-6 connected to the connection points 104 of the testcircuit (such as an IC chip 103) housed in the socket 105 a of themechanical compression structure 105 to the pads 109 of the adaptorboard 106 and to the pads 111 of the main circuit board 110 also knownas pin map scrambling. As shown in FIG. 6A, the adaptor board 106 can bererouted so that its electrical pathway 112 does not have to connect tothe corresponding land or pad 111 on the main circuit board 110 nor doesit need to translate pitch. Thus pin 105 b-1 on structure 105 can beconnected to pad 107-1 on a first side 106 a of the adaptor board 106and pad 107-1 is rerouted via electrical pathway 112 to connect to thepad 107-6 rather than the first land 107-5 on the second side 106 b ofthe adaptor board 106. The pad 107-6 is then connected to the pad 111-2on the opposing surface 110 a of the main circuit board 110. Anypossible re-routing can be effected in this way. In this way the presentdisclosure permits re-routing of circuitry as desired. In addition thenumbers of pads for the adaptor board 106 and for the main circuit board110 can vary as needed. In addition, in this embodiment of FIG. 6A,there is no need for a modified PC board 108 as in FIG. 5 as is also thecase in the embodiment of FIG. 9.

FIG. 6B illustrates one possible illustration of an enhanced tracerouting 112 of the present disclosure known as pin map scrambling. As aresult of the placement of the conductive elastomeric lands 109 on eachside of the modified PC board 108 trace routing 112 is possible in andaround connecting land arrays on interface layers between the modifiedPC board 108 and the adaptor board 106 and between the modified PC board108 and the main circuit board 110. The modified PC board is not shownin the illustration of FIG. 6A. It is understood that this feature ofthe re-routing of the adaptor board 106 works for the embodiments ofFIGS. 5, 6 a,8 and 9.

FIG. 7 illustrates a possible embodiment according to the presentdisclosure of the modified PC board 108. The PC board 108 is modified byplacing lands with isotropic material on both surfaces of the PC board108 as shown. While FIG. 7 shows one surface, it is understood that theother surface is similarly arranged. The elastomeric material can beelastomeric paste placed on pads on both sides of the modified PC board108.

FIG. 8 illustrates a second embodiment in which there is no need for amodified pc board 108 between the adaptor board 106 and the main circuitboard 10. Instead the lands 107 b on the surface of the adaptor board106 facing the lands 111 a of the main circuit board 110 are coated witha conductive elastomeric material 109. Thus, instead of coating the pads109 a and 109 b respectively of a modified PC board 108, as was the casein FIG. 5 of the present disclosure, the lands 107 b of the adaptorboard 106 facing the lands 111 a of the main circuit board 110 arecoated with the elastomeric material 109.

FIG. 9 illustrates a third embodiment in which there is no need for amodified PC board 108 between the adaptor board 106 and the main circuitboard 110. Instead the lands 111 a on the surface of the main circuitboard 110 facing the lands 107 b of the adaptor board 106 are coatedwith a conductive elastomeric material 109. Thus, instead of coating thepads 109 a and 109 b respectively of a modified PC board 108, as was thecase in FIG. 5 of the present disclosure, the lands 111 a of the maincircuit board 110 facing the lands 107 b of the adaptor board 106 arecoated with the elastomeric paste 109.

While certain embodiments have been shown and described, it isdistinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but maybe otherwise embodied within the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for improved powerdistribution or power dissipation to an electrical component attached toa main circuit board, comprising: one or more power modificationcomponents embedded inside of at least one adaptor board between vias ofsaid adaptor board, said one or more power modification componentshaving terminals in an electrical contact with a pad of said adaptorboard, said pad having defined isotropic conductive elastomer thereon sothat electricity conducts through said one or more power modificationcomponents to place said one or more power modification components closeto said electrical component to reduce an electrical length between theone or more power modification components and said electrical componentthereby reducing inductance said pad defined isotropic conductiveelastomer is with a compression stop; said adaptor board beingsandwiched between said electrical component and the main circuit boardand said adaptor board being connected or attached to the main circuitboard; said one or more embedded components being located so as toextend over and beyond the vias or blind vias of said main circuit boardso that a portion of the adaptor board containing the embedded powermodification component is located beyond where vias or blind vias of themain circuit board are located to permit that via of the main circuitboard to conduct through the opening so that said power modificationcomponent is at a closer contact point to said electrical componentthereby increasing power distribution or power dissipation,respectively.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said powermodification component is a capacitor.
 3. The apparatus according toclaim 1 wherein said power modification is a resistor.
 4. The apparatusaccording to claim 1 wherein said pad defined elastomer provides anelectrical connection between said adaptor board and said main circuitboard.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said pad definedelastomer provides an electrical connection between said adaptor boardand said main circuit board wherein said pad defined elastomer islocated on at least one surface of said adaptor board.
 6. The apparatusaccording to claim 1 wherein pad defined elastomer provides anelectrical connection between said adaptor board and said main circuitboard.
 7. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said adaptor boardis a multilayer board.
 8. The apparatus according to claim 1 whereinsaid adaptor board is a two sided pc board.